It’s five years, Mr. President

Cabinet yesterday gave approval to prepare a draft bill relevant to specific articles of the Constitution concerning the terms of office for the President and Parliament.

This decision targets articles 30 (2), 62 (2), and 83 (b) of the Constitution, which govern the duration of presidential and parliamentary terms.

This comes days after the Supreme Court dismissed a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition filed by businessman C.D. Lenawa who sought an order preventing the calling of a Presidential election until the Court delivers its interpretation on the date of the Presidential poll.

All this to clear a supposed ambiguity in the law on whether the President’s term in office is five or six years is. The matter was first raised by the UNP General Secretary Palitha Range Bandara and since then, other developments linked to the same issue have been cascading one after the other, the latest being Cabinet approval for yet another constitutional amendment.

It can be clearly understood by now that there are apprehensions within President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s camps as the election draws nearer with early indications that he has a tough fight at hand to win the Presidential election. All this while he is yet to announce his decision on whether he plans to contest or not, an inevitability he has been putting off as much as he can before making the announcement.

Elections have just been concluded in the United Kingdom and the Conservatives who ruled for 14 years were soundly defeated. In France the ruling party took a beating and the country is left with a hung parliament and a great deal of uncertainty.

In Sri Lanka, the country is headed for the Presidential election first and already many alliances are being made to face the polls. Unlike in the past, there is a strong showing by the main opposition party SJB led by Sajith Premadasa as well as the NPP/JVP led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake. President Ranil Wickremesinghe, when he enters the fray, faces strong competition as he seeks to legitimise his presidency by winning at an election and put aside the ridicule he often faces as being a President voted into office by Parliament and not the people.

It’s amidst this that opinions are being thrown around over how long the term of the President is?

In 2018, when the then President Maithripala Sirisena made a reference to the Supreme Court seeking its opinion on whether or not he could serve up to six years, a five-member bench unanimously ruled that the President’s term was limited to five years. Trying to interpret this in any other way is illegal and goes against the spirit of democracy.

In an election, one candidate will win while the others will be “also rans”. That’s the way parliamentary democracy works, and Sri Lankans know this better than citizens in many other countries having exercised their franchise for close to a century.

However poor your public standing looks, politicians have to seek the mandate of the people and accept the results that follow. 

Sri Lanka voters have shown time and again that they can give shock results as was seen in 2015 when Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated. Similarly in 2019, Gotabaya Rajapaksa won with an unexpectedly big majority which didn’t end well either for him or for the country. 2024 is a decisive year for Sri Lanka as the country makes a slow recovery from its worst economic crisis. A majority of the people are managing to just keep their heads above the water and frustration with the Government is high. However unfavourable the mood of the people is toward those in power, it’s imperative that elections be held and allow the voters to decide who they choose as their next President. Wasting time on constitutional amendments is not necessary just when the country is weeks away from a poll.